Concept to Reality

Who we are

You have a great idea; you've done your homework, you know it'll work, now you just need someone to build it. That's what we do - we help you turn your vision into a business.

Our clients are entrepreneurs; smart business people who know their industry, but aren't software developers. That's where we come in. We know how to build software products, we've created many new products in the past, and we love doing it. Let us guide you through the development process and help you launch your new product. Along the way, we'll lay the groundwork that will enable your product to evolve and your technology to scale.

We've also launched a few new businesses ourselves; we know founders may not have the resources yet to hire in-house developers or outside consultants, so we offer a new model. We want to take a chance on you and invest in your idea. Like you, we want to be rewarded for your long term success, not just for the hours we spend working. We offer creative payment structures that allow you to get your business off the ground first, then let us all share in the success later.

What we do

Planning & Design

You've identified a problem and come up with a way to solve it. You know the business, but not the technology. Should your product be an enterprise platform, a mobile app, or a Salesforce.com plugin? Is it for just one type of user, or many users coming together to play different roles? How do you translate your solution into an elegant user experience?

We listen to your vision and help craft the product that will deliver your solution; we work with you to design navigation, workflows, and page layouts to guide users through the functionality.

Technology & Infrastructure

With experience in a wide selection of technologies and approaches, we can guide you toward an appropriate, cost effective solution. Through API's and web services, many features that your product needs can be bought instead of built. Additionally, much of the plumbing for software is readily available as an existing open source or subscription tool that is faster and often cheaper to implement than building it from scratch.

Product Management

Many software projects fail because of overly ambitions scope. Don't get bogged down by features that may be needed in the future; focus on just what's needed now.

We believe in rapidly launching a minimum viable product, and iterating to deliver new features. We're always delivering a useable product, and are always ready to pivot as customer demands evolve. We are diligent about identifying which features are really necessary now and which ones can come later, so we can get a viable product in the hands of customers as soon as possible.

Past Clients

CakeSystems

Portland, OR

We partnered with a non-profit to build CakeSystems, an online tool to help homeowners make energy efficiency improvements. Cake’s core feature was an energy modeling algorithm that could predict how much energy a home should be using and how much could be saved. By quantifying the impact of different home improvement options, such as replacing a furnace or adding attic insulation, homeowners and contractors could better choose which improvements to make. As a platform, Cake also facilitated the workflow among homeowners seeking advice, contractors proposing work, and efficiency programs paying incentives. The CakeSystems product included features such as: enterprise API integration, customizable workflows, dashboards and reporting, role based permissions, data warehousing, and a sophisticated building science algorithm. After steadily growing its client base for five years, CakeSystems was successfully sold to Renovate America, a provider of financing for home improvement projects. As a stakeholder in CakeSystems, we shared in the proceeds of the sale.

Covelo Staffing Vendor Management Platform

Houston, TX

The first business we started on our own was a staffing Managed Service Program (MSP). We founded the new company, Covelo Group, as four partners that had been working together in the staffing industry and saw an opportunity to introduce simplified technology and a unique business process. The product was a Vendor Management System (VMS) that helped global engineering and construction firms staff their projects with engineers, project managers, and other professionals. The tool provided a single platform to manage job seekers, hiring managers, and agency recruiters through the hiring process. The VMS product included features such as: separate portals for each user type (candidates, agency recruiters, and hiring managers), workflow management, complex invoicing and reconciliation, and ACH banking. Our company won Houston Business Journal’s FastTech 50 award in 2012 for growing revenue from $7 million in 2010 to $10.4 million in 2011 (48%).

About

High Cascades Technology's founders, Brandon and Julie, first worked together as consultants in the dot com boom. They met on a project in New York City building a staffing and document management platform for a global investment bank. Since then, they have worked together to build numerous new products and even launched two new companies of their own. They each have over 20 years of software experience in industries including Renewable Energy, Staffing, Finance, Engineering & Construction, Manufacturing, Marketing, Biotech, and Media & Entertainment

Brandon

Product Manager

Brandon started out in Manufacturing as an Industrial Engineer. His passion for improving the efficiency of any process he encountered, from designing a factory floor to ordering a burrito, led him promptly into designing software, where any process could be automated and optimized. While Brandon can pass as an adequate coder, his strength is on the Product side of things. Brandon's combination of hands-on technical skills and business intuition allows him to visualize innovative solutions to complex organizational problems. Brandon has held titles including CTO, Product Manager, Functional Analyst, and Engineer. Brandon graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering. While running his first start-up, Brandon decided to formalize his business skills and earned an MBA from University of Washington, Foster School of Business, where he was valedictorian of his class.

Read more about Brandon

Julie

Software Architect

Julie has always been interested in technology. She learned Java as an intern at IBM, back when Java was just emerging as an enterprise technology, and has continued to evolve her skills in both front and back end development. Julie is particularly suited for developing software for start-ups. She has a pragmatic approach that lets her build new products quickly, leveraging existing frameworks and design patterns that have been proven in past projects. But she's also always incorporating new technology when adding new capabilities or making existing functionality more scalable. Julie is known for building new products that are ready to launch quickly but architected to be scalable and quickly meet growing needs.

Read more about Julie

Contact

We want to hear about your idea. Even if we don't end up working together, we'd like to hear about it and offer any insight we can. If you think we could work together to build something great, let us know!

We are located in Bend, OR, but our past clients have been located across the country; we're happy to work with you wherever you are!

Email is the best way to reach us. You can email Brandon directly at the address below to set up a time to chat.